HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – IUPUI volleyball dropped its second-straight road contest, falling in three sets (25-22, 25-17, 25-19) to Northern Kentucky on Sunday (Oct. 6).

McKayla Wright led IUPUI (6-11, 2-2 Horizon) with nine kills in the match and Kaitlyn Johnson finished the match with seven. The offense struggled against Northern Kentucky (10-6, 3-1 Horizon), hitting just .053 as a team. Outside of Johnson (.333) and Haley Hoffman (.200), no Jaguar hit above .000.

Freshman Regan Trueblood guided IUPUI's offense with 18 assists, the fourth-straight match that Trueblood has handed out double-digit assists.

IUPUI's defense was not able to slow down the Northern Kentucky attack with the Norse hitting .300, the highest opposing hitting percentage the Jags have allowed since Georgia Tech hit .333 back on Sept. 6. The Jags only managed 41 digs to NKU's 53 and finished with a total of eight team blocks, marking the first time in league play this season that IUPUI did not have double-digit blocks. Hoffman did finish with seven total blocks including three solo blocks.

The two teams traded runs early and IUPUI earned a 14-13 lead after a kill by Johnson. From there, NKU rattled off five-straight and seven of the next eight points to take control with a 20-15 lead. After the Norse earned set point, IUPUI scored three-straight points to pull within two but NKU earned a kill to end the set.

The Jags fell in to an early 10-3 hole to start the second set but battled back, making the score 14-12 after two blocks by the duo of Johnson and Hoffman. The margin would stretch again as NKU scored four-straight and matched a 3-0 IUPUI run by another 4-0 run eventually closing out the second set 25-17.

IUPUI again let the Norse use and early run in set three to go up 9-5 and couldn't stop the bleeding eventually falling behind 15-6. Later in the set, down by nine, IUPUI tried to get back in to the set with a 5-0 run, highlighted by kills from Johnson, Wright and Maddie Dean. For the rest of the set, the closest IUPUI could get was four at 23-19 after back-to-back kills by Wright but the Norse got two-straight points to close out the match.

UP NEXT
IUPUI will be back home to host Youngstown State on Wednesday, Oct. 9 beginning at 6 p.m. in the Jungle.